B'nai Brith
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Categories: Jewish organizations | Judaism-related stubs
The Independent Order of B'nai Brith (Hebrew: "Sons of the Covenant") is the oldest continually-operating Jewish service organization in the world. It was founded in New York City by Henry Jones and 11 others on October 13, 1843. The organization is engaged in a wide variety of community service and welfare activities, including the promotion of Jewish rights, assisting hospitals and victims of natural disasters, awarding scholarships to Jewish college students, and opposing racism and anti-semitism through its Anti-Defamation League.
Besides its welfare activities, B'nai Brith is also a vocal supporter of Israeli policies. Together with AIPAC, it created in 2002 an initiative called 'BBYO 4 Israel'.
Also, until 2001, B'nai Brith sponsored the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization (BBYO), which is now BBYO, Inc. BBYO is the oldest Jewish youth group (for high schoolers), and is parent organization to the Aleph Zadik Aleph (AZA), a fraternity, and B'nai B'rith Girls (BBG), a sorority.
B'nai Brith Canada
The Canadian section of B'nai Brith was founded in 1875 and is the country's oldest Jewish service organization. In recent years it has competed with the Canadian Jewish Congress as "the voice" of Canada's Jewish community and is considered to be the more outspokenly conservative body of the two, particularly in its publication Jewish Tribune which is more openly right-wing than the more moderate Canadian Jewish News, which is more closely linked to the CJC. B'nai Brith Canada (BBC) is also considered to be closer to the Likud in its view of Israel and Zionism than CJC which is officially non-partisan when it comes to Israeli politics. In Canadian politics, though both groups are officially non-partisan, several former senior officials in the CJC, such as former President Irwin Cotler have run as candidates for the Liberal Party of Canada while Frank Dimant, executive director of B'nai Brith, considered running as a candidate of the conservative Canadian Alliance in the 2000 federal election.
Criticism of B'nai Brith Canada
B'nai Brith was widely criticized by Canadian Arab and Muslim groups after Adam Aptowitzer, its Ontario chairman for B'nai Brith's Institute of International Affairs in October 2004, made a statement on The Michael Coren Show in Canada, saying that Israeli “state-sponsored terrorism” against Palestinians was "justified" — a position he says he took in light of the definition that the panelists on the Michael Coren Show had adopted for the purposes of their discussion. According to Aptowitzer, the terminologies agreed upon by the panelists, effectively meant that “deterrence could be classified as a terrorist action.” Aptowitzer resigned in the wake of the controversy.